Are you curious about Japanese culture, hot springs, and onsen ryokan? This blog is your cultural guide: steamy photographs (no porn), hot explanations rippling with the bare truth about Japanese hot springs, as well as unbiased reviews. Step into the blog, and wet your toes, your whole body, your mind, your soul, and your computer as you enjoy relaxing photographs and healing stories.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Nagoya Airport's Enjoyable Japanese Bath

While naked in a hot Japanese bath that is located within a few hundred feet from an international airport runway, we watched planes from all over the world arrive and depart.

Relaxing in a Japanese Bath Between Flights

Nagoya Airport, locally called Centrair, is one of only a few airports in the world that provide travelers with the ultimate experience between flights: revitalizing hot baths, some with bubbles and jets, one that is freezing cold, and others that are hot and soothing, a wood-scented sauna, and outdoor benches. All of these amenities belong to a bathhouse named Fu No Yu (風の湯), which roughly translates as bath of the wind.

Poster for the Nagoya Airport Bathhouse

Considering that the facilities are right in the middle of an airport terminal, the admission fee of 1,000 yen is not too high. You can spend hours switching between baths and the sauna, or stretching out in the relaxation room, a quiet tatami-floored room.

Three Baths: Cold, Jet, and Hot, All with Airplane Views

As the hot spring addict, I feel honor bound to point out that this bathhouse is not officially classified as an onsen, Japanese hot spring. This type of bathhouse is called a sentou, せんとう (銭湯). The baths are filled with tap water that is not geothermally heated, so the facilities cannot be called an onsen. Nonetheless, I recommend this bathhouse because of its cleanliness, special location, and comfortable facilities.

Relaxation Between Flights

Although Nagoya isnot known for Japanese onsens, Nagoya has its share of good ones. My recommendation is Ryunsenji-no-yu, (竜 泉寺の湯). a hot spring facility in Nagoya, which has various hot-water baths and an entire floor of ganbanyoku rooms, each containing miscellaneous herbs or minerals and heated to different temperatures. Click on the link above to learn more.